The Gaza Post| The News of Palestine- Gaza Strip

The Israeli occupation authorities on Monday evening released a Palestinian fisherman after detaining him for three weeks, with no guilt, as he was working off the northern coast of the besieged Gaza Strip.

Fisherman Mu’men al-Numan, had been kidnapped on January 9 along with five others, but he was kept in detention while his friends were released soon later at the time, according to the Palestinian Information Center in Gaza.

Numan entered Gaza through the Beit Hanoun border crossing (Erez).

Israeli gunboats are around Gaza fishermen almost every day, harassing them, shooting at them, damaging their boats, and making arrests. Sometimes fishermen are injured or killed during gunfire attacks.

Under the 1993 Oslo accords, Palestinian fishermen are permitted to fish up to 20 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza. Over the past 18 years, however, Israel has reduced the fishing area gradually to a limit of six to three nautical miles as part of its blockade on Gaza.

But fishermen and human rights groups say that, since the 2008-09 war in Gaza, the Israeli army has been regularly enforcing a limit even closer to the shore.